Autumn: A Perfect Time to Re-visit Your Self-care!

The importance of maintaining your balance on an ongoing basis as a preventative health measure cannot be overstated. Consistency with self-care is definitely an advantage, and for me, that takes focus and determination.

At the end of our challenge in 2019, I listed up the top 10 takeaways. Among these, I’ve learned that self-care improvements move forward best when you:

• Make a commitment and set your intention
• Choose some easy (yet effective) ways to show yourself you care
• Anchor and layer your self-care actions

All of these points have become even truer with the prolonged pandemic. It’s also become even more difficult to stay on track with your self-care – whether you are officially caregiving, or not. But certainly, for caregivers, the road has only become rockier.

As a starting point to re-assessing where my own self-care stands at this point in the year, I read through my self-care goals from January. I could see that although I’d made progress, there were still gaps. My three big goals were:

• Go to bed earlier (1:00 am curfew): YES! I’ve done great with this and it’s so much better than before.
• Get more movement into my daily life with (at least) one 10-minute walk per day, three 30-min walks per week, two one-hour yoga classes: NO! This was way too ambitious for me, and I’d only managed the 10-minute walks.
• Increase volume of “enlightening inputs” with (at least) 5x per week reading, listening, or watching something that provides a new perspective: KIND OF. I’m more aware of the opportunities, and have started slowly but surely incorporating new sources and inputs into my daily life. But I’d say I need a good bit of work here.

The gaps are obvious to me, but since I know it’s also important not to overload yourself, I vowed to work on my goal of getting more movement into my daily life, starting with walking. It's a bit cooler, so more viable!

I’m so happy to tell you I’ve done three 30-minute walks per week for three weeks straight now, something that’s been on my list all year. Now I feel cheated if I even THINK about not doing it. I realize it’s the bare minimum, but it’s a start!

Once I got started with the walking, I started to see other small opportunities for expanding my self-care actions:

• This week, I started doing a bit of yoga again. I’ll admit it’s a small amount – just a few stretches every morning – BUT I’ve tied the activity to my already-locked-in “Joy Journaling” practice every morning, so I’m hoping this time it will stick! Nicole DeAvilla (a guest speaker in our annual 31-day Easy Self-care Challenges) has a great 2-minute Yoga practice that really helps get you going!
• I’m also experimenting further with eliminating my early morning leg cramps. I’ve been working to drink more water all year (yes, it’s work for me!), and that’s been helping. I’m also a new rehydration drink from my Ayurvedic-go-to, Carol Nace (who’s appeared as a guest speaker in our annual 31-day Easy Self-care Challenges) that I’m really liking!
• I’ve also reconfirmed that juicing is delicious and well worth the time. I got the juicer out again. It’s easy to use, but sometimes I feel pressured about doing the prep work (not that it’s difficult - it’s just another 20 minutes or so that I don’t have to spare). But I figured it was time, so several times this month I’ve made lovely fresh pineapple and apple juice (spiked with ginger).

How are you honoring yourself with your self-care as you move into Autumn? Remember, it doesn’t have to be difficult - or even take much time - to up your game on self-care.  Like saving for a rainy day, your investment will pay off long-term!